Disposable gloves have been widely utilized in medical, industrial, clean room, food and other applications. The disposable gloves are classified as nitrile gloves, vinyl gloves, natural rubber gloves, neoprene gloves, polyethylene gloves, etc., according to the material they are made of. There are two typical methods of manufacturing the disposable gloves, and these methods are: (method 1) dipping a hand mold into a tank of liquid glove-forming compounds, followed by processes such as drying and vulcanizing; and (method 2) forming a thin film utilizing the glove-forming compound, and heat sealing two layers of the thin film utilizing a hand-shaped heat seal stamp.
Among the various materials for making disposable gloves, polyethylene is desired for its water-resistance performance, biodegradability, health and economic reasons, etc. Unlike other kinds of disposable gloves, polyethylene gloves have been made utilizing the heat seal process (method 2). In the heat seal process, two layers of polyethylene films (made through an extrusion process, such as slit-die extrusion, blown-film extrusion, etc.) are first laminated together. Then a hand-shaped heat seal stamp with the contour of a hand cuts through the films while concurrently melts the edges of the cut films to heat seal the edges of the two films together (except for the edge corresponding to the wrist or arm of a wearer), thereby forming a glove with a seam along the contour of the hand. As the two layers of films are connected together at the seam, current polyethylene disposable gloves suffer from weak mechanical strength along the seams. In fact, polyethylene disposable gloves often fail a test when high pressure is applied to the inside of the glove due to its broken seam. In addition, because the films are typically made at one station, and the heat seal process is conducted at another station, or even at a different location, the heat seal process takes extra space and processing time.